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A map of the Puget Sound showing the location of the magnitude 4.5 earthquake and the seismometer locations that measured it.

ShakeAlert gets first Washington test in recent Pacific Northwest earthquake

A 4.5 magnitude earthquake jolted awake many residents of the San Juan Islands early on March 3. The quake caused no major damage and did not set off a tsunami warning. It did, however, trigger the ShakeAlert early warning system, which alerts people via their smartphone as soon as an earthquake begins. The system was developed in part by researchers at the University of Washington, and hadn't been triggered in Washington state since its launch in 2021.

Read more at the College of the Environment
A map centered on the states of Washington and Oregon, showing parts of surrounding states and the Pacific ocean. To the bottom and left of the map are the latitude and longitude coordinates. At the top is a title reading '2024 PNSN Earthquake Catalog.' Below the map is a legend bar separated into fourteen squares that progress in color through the rainbow. These colors correspond to the depth of each earthquake. The earthquakes are shown as dots and squares on the map, ranging in color depending on their depth. In the top left hand corner is another legend showing that a dot corresponds with an earthquake within PNSN's monitoring area, and squares are those outside of it. The legend also describes how the size of each corresponds with its magnitude, with larger dots having larger magnitudes. Clusters of dots primarily surround western Washington, with smaller clusters around western Oregon and sporadic ones in the eastern parts of both states. Clusters of squares are seen off the southern coast of Oregon and northern California.

2024 PNSN Earthquake Catalog

In 2024 the PNSN located 3,272 earthquakes within Washington and Oregon. Another pretty typical year for seismicity in the PNW. Check out our most recent blog post which reviews our 2024 Earthquake Catalog.

Read more at PNSN
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